Her highness Ksania was ordered to be banished from Cransia as a punishment.
Banishment.
She was to return to her homeland and never set foot to Cransia ever again. Considering the importance of the relationship between Cransia and Genoa, this was the harshest punishment Lucretius could give.
That same night, we were sitting in my bedroom when he asked me, “Are you unhappy with the punishment?”
I shook my head. “No. Why would I be?”
“She tried to harm you, Bina.”
“But she ended up failing, so I’m fine.”
I truly didn’t care.
“Besides, if you gave her a harsher punishment, Genoa wouldn’t just stand down. I don’t want a war.” I added.
“I don’t know why my wife is so generous and kind.”
I laughed. “It’s not true. I just don’t want a war. That’s it.”
“Hmm… By the way, that Katleyanira is so annoying.”
I nodded wholeheartedly. “I know. She profited from this more than we did.”
The dowager empress didn’t have to do anything to get rid of Ksania. As for me, although I was officially found innocent, I knew there would be nasty rumors about me. Everyone liked to gossip.
Plus, Lucretius now had an uncomfortable relationship with Genoa. He already had an incident with Prince Coronel, and this worsened the situation.
As I suspected, it would be very difficult to defeat the dowager empress. I couldn’t imagine what she was planning next and it scared me.
Lucretius must have read my fear. He took my hand.
“Hmm?”
He didn’t say anything. He just looked at me with a big smile, making me feel uncomfortable.
W, what is this? Why was I feeling so hot? Was this room getting warm all of a sudden?
However, it was winter. Why was my face burning?
It must have been the fireplace. Perhaps the fire was too big.
I reached out to pull the rope on the side of the bed to call for my maids, but Lucretius stopped me gently.
“What’s wrong?”
I became even redder.
“I, I…! It’s too hot! I’m going to get the servants to adjust the fire…!”
Lucretius shook his head.
“No, it’s winter. If the fire isn’t going, it will get very cold in the night and my precious wife may get sick. I can’t let that happen.”
Why was my heart beating so fast? Why?
I could hear my own heartbeat in my ears like a drum. Lucretius grinned and whispered to me.
“If you are so hot, should I help you undress?”
Crazy man! He has lost his mind!
I shook my head and shouted, “No! It’s not necessary! I’m not hot anymore!”
Lucretius continued to grin wickedly and tried to grab my pajamas.
Just then, a noise was heard outside the window.
“…!”
Someone was shouting loudly. I could hear several people trying to stop this person, but the noise grew louder and louder.
We couldn’t ignore it anymore.
Lucretius asked whoever was outside, “What is happening?!” He was clearly annoyed.
Someone answered as if he was waiting for this.
“This is what Cransia did to Genoa!”
It was a familiar voice of Prince Coronel.
What was the prince doing outside our window? How dare he make a scene in the middle of the night? Was he crazy?
This was a royal wing where the emperor and his wife slept. The entire place was surrounded by multiple layers of royal guards, which meant even a foreign prince couldn’t enter.
His voice seemed far away, he must have been stopped at the main entrance door.
Lucretius realized something was off. He nodded at me. I grabbed my nightgown. I was only in my pajamas, so it made sense I should put something on top.
However, Lucretius overdid it. He tucked me into the nightgown and tied the sash rather tightly around me with a pretty bow.
I complained, “It’s too tight and uncomfortable.”
He smiled. “Then you can stay in the room.”
I was curious, so I shook my head. Just then, Coronel cried out again like an animal.
“Come out right now and see! See what you have done!”
Lucretius was now openly annoyed as we walked outside together.
“How dare you…!”
He was about to shout, but what we saw was… shockingly gruesome.
It was snowing in the garden. On the white ground, red blood shined brightly.
Prince Coronel was holding a woman and kneeling in front of us. I knew the woman in his arms.
“Her highness Ksania!”
She wasn’t moving. There was a delicately designed dagger in her chest. She was covered in blood.
Coronel screamed again, “My aunt committed suicide out of humiliation! You have shamed our country! How will you make this right?!”
***
Coronel was frantic. He remembered his father the king’s order before he left with Ludia to attend the Cransian ball.
“If you accomplish this, you will be the next king.”
The king showed Coronel the half-moon scimitar made from the desert’s black metal. It was an item Coronel and his eight brothers desperately coveted.
It was Mohav, the sword that united the twenty-five desert nations to create Genoa.
The sword was simple without a single piece of gold or precious stone, but this made it look even more severe. It represented the power of all desert nations. It was the symbol of Genoa as the greatest kingdom.
It was the one thing Coronel desired the most in this world.
He glared at the woman sitting in front of him.
“So what are you going to do, aunt?”
Ksania Al Bint Genoeum. Prince Coronel’s aunt and the only sister of the current Genoan King. She was also the woman sent as a gift to Cransia many years ago.
She frowned as she took a sip of jujube tea. It was her favorite and the Genoan King sent it as a present for his sister.
“What else is there to do other than return home?”
Coronel became angry. “How could say that so easily?!”
“Then what are you saying I should do? You begged me and that was the only reason why I worked with that bitch dowager empress. Your plan failed and now I lost my place here. What can I do?”
Coronel glared at his aunt and took out something from his pocket.
It was a stylish dagger decorated with silver flower pattern. It was common for Genoan women to carry a dagger for protection.
Ksania used to carry such daggers before she came to Cransia. However, here, the emperor’s wives were not allowed to own weapons.
“What is this?”
Coronel requested determinedly.
“Aunt, please sacrifice yourself for our country.”
His sister Ludia, who was sitting nearby nervously, screamed, “B, brother!”
Ksania looked pale as she shuddered. “Are you telling me… to kill myself?”
Coronel nodded. “Yes, if you commit suicide in defiance, Cransia will owe a big debt to Genoa. This crime against the emperor’s wife will be quickly forgotten with your death and you will be remembered for the great sacrifice you did for your country. Please do this for all of us.”
Ksania trembled as she yelled, “Are you serious?!”
“Yes! You already sacrificed yourself once when you married the former emperor! So just once more…!”
Ksania slapped her nephew with her fan.
“How dare you! How dare you say something like that to me?!”
“Aunt!”
Ksania stood up and glared at her ambitious nephew.
“Did my brother order this? It can’t be! My brother would never ask me of such a thing because he knows why I married the old emperor! I spent my youth as the wife of that horrible man so my brother could become the king!” Ksania continued in anger, “That is for you, Coronel and Ludia, could become a prince and a princess! It was all thanks to me!”
Coronel tried to protest, “But that was the king…!”
“Go back and ask your king! Ask him what I sacrificed and what my brother promised me before I left home! Ask him what I did for him for the past ten years so my brother could take the throne!”
“Aunt!”
Ksania shook with anger and replied, “I gave up my youth for my country and my brother! No Genoan can ever ask me of anything else! Even my own brother wouldn’t dare! Yet here you are… My own nephew dares to ask for my life?!”
Before Coronel could say anything, Ksania threw her fan at him. It hit him right on the nose.
“Ahh!”
Ignoring him, Ksania turned to her young niece. “Ludia.”
“Y, yes? Aunt?”
“If it was at all possible, I would have continued my effort to make you the next empress, but it’s won’t work. Not as long as that bitch Katleyanira is here, and…” She frowned. “As long as that woman Sa Bina is here. She is young, but I can see that she will become a bigger monster than Katleyanira. You won’t survive here. Give up now and let’s return home together.”
“A, aunt…”
Ludia seemed speechless as she looked at her aunt and her brother.
Just then, Coronel groaned. “Alright…”
He grabbed the dagger quietly as Ksania sighed and turned away. Ludia sighed in relief as well, thinking this conversation was finally over.
It wasn’t.
Coronel took out the dagger from its sheath.
